Professor, Graphic Design & Interactive Media

Year Joined RCNJ: 2002

Contact Information

• Phone: (201) 684-7597
• Email: bblake@ramapo.edu
• Office: A-207
• Office Hours: Mon 9:45-11:00 AM, Wed. 4:30-6:00 PM, Fri 3:00-4:30 PM

Education:

• MFA School of the Arts-Columbia University
• BFA School of the Arts-Ohio University

Courses Offered:

• COMM 219 - IDEA DEVELOPMENT
• COMM 310 - APOCALYPTIC VISIONS IN ANIME, FILM & MEDIA
• COMM 327 - MOTION GRAPHICS & TITLE DESIGN
• COMM 339 - PUBLICATION DESIGN
• COMM 360 -
• COMM 362 - INTERACTIVE ANIMATION DESIGN
• COMM 404 - SENIOR PROJECT: VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN
• COMM 405 - VISUAL IDENTITY DESIGN

Recent Scholarly and Professional Accomplishments:

Throw a Brick Out Your Window: Engaging Students’ Intuition, Experience, and Senses in Creating Motion. Paper presented at and published in MODE Journal at Motion Design Education Annual Summit, Dublin Ireland. June 2015.

Perspectives on Designing Thinking for Visual Communicators. Spaces of Learning: Inside Outside Graphic Design Education: Paper presented at AIGA Design Educators Conference. Toronto, Ontario, April 2015.

Designing For Good: Nurturing Students as Citizen Designers.” Paper presented at Union For Democratic Communications, San Francisco, CA. November 2013.

Re: It Gets Worse: Fwd: History of Graphic Design. Paper presented at College Design Educators Summit, Chattanooga, TN. May 2013.

Writing a Wrong in Graphic Design Education: Where is Writing Introduced? How is it Nourished? Paper presented at University and College Design Educators Summit, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ. May 2011.

Unity, Repetition, Alignment, Similarity, and Blah, Blah, Blah: Guiding Design Students to Break New Ground. Paper presented at University and College Design Educators Summit Annual Conference, Mobile, AL. May 2010.

Homeless in Suburbia: Discards from a Consumer Culture. Presentation and discussion at New Jersey International Film Festival, New Brunswick, NJ. June 2008.

Film and Multimedia Screenings and Exhibitions

Juanita (documentary). Screened at Montclair International Film Festival. 2012.

Micki and the Red Shoes (animation). Digital DUMBO, Mastel + Mastel Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. 2009.

Too Lost to Find (documentary film/animation). Presentation, screening, and filmmaker’s Q&A. New Jersey International Film Festival, New Brunswick, NJ. June 2008.

Too Lost to Find screened at the following venues:

• Austin Women’s Film Festival, Austin, Texas. May 2008.
• Peace on Earth International Film Festival, Chicago, IL. September 2008.
• Cape May New Jersey State Film Festival, Cape May, NJ. November 2008.
• Red Bank International Film Festival, Long Branch, NJ. May 2009.

Displaced in Appalachia: The ‘Other’ Homeless. Multimedia project. Estimated completion date: Spring 2016. Funded by SBR grant.

“Walk the Borderlands.” Multimedia/video. Estimated completion date: Fall 2016. Funded by SBR grant.

Screenings of “Replacement Needed,” animation short.

• Small Art Festival, Lincoln, NE. January 2008.
• Austin Women’s’ Film and Literary Festival, Austin, TX. May 2007.
• Winter Shorts Film Festival, Portland, ME. June 2007. 

Awards and Special Recognition

Peer reviewer for UCDA Design Education Summit, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD. 2015

Program reviewer for Seton Hall University College Arts and Design major. 2015.

Graphic Design USA, Silver Award: VIP Passport brand identity. 2013.

Ramapo College Faculty Student Research Award. 2012.

Ramapo College Faculty Development Fund grants. 2008, 2010, 2012.

Ramapo College Career Development grant. 2014.

ADCNJ Bronze Award: Postcards From Tora Bora film poster design, illustration and photography. Displayed Tribeca Film Festival premiere, 2011.

Fred and Florence Thomases Award for significant and ongoing contributions to the development of the college, 2010.

Professional reviewer for National Design Student Portfolio Review (100 best portfolios selected from exceptional design graduates in US), Art Director’s Club Global, NY. May 2006-2013.